is the influence of wayne lapierre and the national rifle association that makes gun advocates like diane feinstein, to say it will be an uphill battle. >> they come after you, they put together large amounts of money to defeat you. >> reporter: but he is on a mission to convince his colleagues. >> we need to wake members up to the fact if they want to do the right thing and join us on gun reform, there is not a political referendum like maybe a decade or two ago. >> reporter: during the 2010 campaign, the nra flooded the area with ads regarding guns, and sherrod brown, and figures for the nonresponsive politics shows that the nra spent over $4 million on the senate campaigns, losing seven out of eight races where they spent over $100,000. money is not the only way to measure influence. >> i think that the nra as a single issue group, is extremely potent as a political force out there. and even though their success rate was less than 50% with their outside spending in the last election, they have these members, millions of members they can mobilize who are strongly motivated on this issue